Page 230 of The Blairville Legacies

He held index cards in one hand, made his way past us, wavinghello, and refilled his water bottle at the fridge before turning back to his sister.

“You can't be a spoilsport for one night?” Mady snorted and opened the fridge. “Beer?”

“Are you serious, Mady?” He looked at her scrutinizingly, and she immediately put the bottle back. Then he looked at us. “You drink alcohol?”

“Ugh, no,” Mady laughed.

He didn't know that she had welcomed us with champagne, but I hadn't drunk it because I felt like a walking corpse. Larissa finished her glass.

“Come on, let's go upstairs.” Mady looked at us promptly and reached for the sodas. “The cookies need a bit more anyway.”

“No alcohol, Mady!” Ezra called after us, but we were already upstairs.

Mady just rolled her eyes and pulled another bottle of champagne out from behind her back two seconds later, whereupon Larissa patted her appreciatively on her shoulder.

“You lied to your brother?” I asked Mady, knowing she was nineteen and therefore old enough to drink in British Columbia.

I looked around her spacious room. The first thing I noticed was the colors. White bed linen with pastel green roses, which were also on the curtains. Pastel green and white cushions, a white carpet that stretched halfway across the room and a closet full of band posters byImagine DragonsandCigarettes After Sex. Mady also had a bookcase full to the brim, next to which a huge gray plush wolf leaned against a mirror. On her dresser was her jewelry and other hair bands.

“God, Bayla,” laughed Larissa, who must have misunderstood my comment, and pushed me into the soft beanbag from which I would certainly never get up again because it was soft and cozy as hell. “We want to have fun. We're notfifteenanymore.”

“Um...” Mia laughed sheepishly, earning a grin from Larissa. “You're not getting anything either, Mia.”

Mia just rolled her eyes and I offered her the divine beanbag because my urge to look at Mady's books was stronger than my aching limbs.

I realized that Mady mainly read thrillers, which I didn't expect from her.

“This is champagne.” Mady held up the bottle and looked at Mia. “And I won't forbid you anything.” She gave us a crooked grin and her eyes sparkled. “I'm not your brother.”

She tried to open the bottle, but was unsuccessful.

Larissa finally snatched it from her and a few seconds later I flinched as the cork flew to the ceiling with a loud bang and then into the monster plush toy. Larissa and Mia laughed loudly and Mady filled the glasses.

Larissa turned on Mady's jukebox.

“Larissa! Ezra wanted to learn,” I admonished her, feeling like the spoilsport, but at least Larissa turned downBan All the MusicbyNothing But Thieves.

“Ezra's from the last century,” Mady laughed and handed Mia her glass. She shook her head.

“I'm not going to drink anything. It's enough that my father has a drinking problem.”

Larissa and I looked at each other in surprise, and she turned the music down a little more.

“He's got it under control again, but he always sits in front of the bottle and stares at it like it could get him out of Blairville.”

Mia sounded like shereallyneeded to talk about it. I wondered if she communicated in this open way with Julian. The two of them had seemed very familiar at dinner.

Larissa came over to Mia and sat down cross-legged in front of the two girls. “Shit, Mia, I'm sorry...”

I sat down on the windowsill.

Mia just smiled, as if she could just shrug it all off at the age of fifteen and looked at Mady. “Never mind. I've got my Sunshine Girl.”

Mady smiled, but her smile seemed surprised and artificial.

“Why does everyone call you that?” I asked.

First Julian, then a few guys in the campus bar and now Mia.